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When we read stories or novels, there is always a storyteller, someone describing the situation and relating and commenting on the action. When the person telling the story is also involved in the story, the teller is called a first-person narrator. When novelists use narrators, they choose between a first-person central narrator and a first-person peripheral narrator. Both use the first-person pronoun "I," but the latter involves a narrator who, although telling the story from his or her point of view, is merely a minor player in the events described. Such is the character of Nick Carrraway in the Great Gatsby. On the other hand, In A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, Alex is the self proclaimed “Humble Narrator.” The action takes place around him and involves him implicitly. He is the story. The narrator can also be omniscient or limited in his knowledge of the story.

Definition: FIRST or THIRD-PERSON OMNISCIENT NARRATION: This is a common form of narration in which the teller of the tale, who often appears to speak with the voice of the author himself, assumes an omniscient (all-knowing) perspective on the story being told: delving into private thoughts, narrating secret or hidden events, jumping between spaces and times. Of course, the omniscient narrator does not therefore tell the reader or viewer everything, at least not until the moment of greatest effect.

The obverse of this is the limited narrator, a storyteller who knows only what would be expected of the average Joe. This narrator knows little more than you or I, and merely relates the story to the reader.

For this course you will be learning and writing about how authors utilize language and techniques to relate stories. When school starts next week, be prepared to thoroughly examine these techniques and devices. You'll focus on the author's manipulation of the reader and decipher the importance of an author's literary tricks.

Welcome to the magnetic fields. Let's go to work.